Helene tearing through Georgia; 6 dead; 4.4 million without power: Live updates
Posted on 09/27/2024
ST. MARKS, Fla. – Helene, now weakened to a tropical storm as it barreled through Georgia on Friday, still wielded enough force to unleash life-threatening floods across the Southeast and cause millions of power outages.
Helene made landfall at about 11:10 p.m. ET Thursday near Perry, Florida, with 140-mph winds, making it the first known Category 4 storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region since records began in 1851. For several hours, the storm maintained hurricane strength as it pushed inland across northern Florida and into Georgia.
By 8 a.m. ET Friday, the National Hurricane Center said Helene was a tropical storm with sustained winds of 60 mph. Racing at 30 mph, the storm was located 35 miles south-southwest of Clemson, South Carolina, and 80 miles eastern-northeast of Atlanta.
At least six storm-related deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. Authorities across the Southeast were rescuing residents trapped in rising floodwaters as Helene soaked much of the region in torrential rain. Over 4.4 million homes and businesses were without power from Florida to the Carolinas and Virginia, Friday morning.
Track the storm: Map Helene's forecast path through Georgia
Developments:
∎ All hurricane and tropical storm warnings were discontinued along the Florida east coast south of the Flagler and Volusia county line, and along the Florida west coast south of the mouth of the Suwannee River, according to the National Hurricane Center.
∎ Helene is tied as the fourteenth most powerful hurricane to hit anywhere in the U.S. since records have been kept and the seventh most powerful to slam into Florida, according to National Hurricane Center data.
∎ In Tallahassee, more than 50 roads were blocked by downed trees and over 53,000 homes and businesses were without power in the wake of Helene, the city said in a post on X.
Among the hardest hit areas was Steinhatchee, a small town along a river emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.Friday morning, John Kujawski drove a golf cart with his wife, Jamie Lee, over debris and around downed trees, horrified at the damage.
Last year, Hurricane Idalia pummeled the town, and workers were still clearing up that mess when Helene arrived. “This is overwhelming,” Lee said. “I don’t think it’s sunk in.”Navigating their bumpy way along Riverside Drive, the couple pointed out guest houses that had been flattened, docks and boat shoved ashore.They noted whose new roofs were destroyed all over again, and mourned the damage to a newly opened pizza restaurant.“They probably had only sold $200 worth of pizza,” Kujawski said. “This is awful.”
Over 4.4 million homes and businesses across the eastern U.S. were in the dark early Friday as Helene pummeled the region with powerful winds and heavy rain.
Below are the outage totals from Florida to Virginia as of 9:30 a.m., according to a USA TODAY power outage tracker.
South Carolina: 1,391,621
Florida: 1,127,650
Georgia: 1,079,409
North Carolina: 692,705
Virginia: 57,299
Tennessee: 51,536
Kentucky: 16,632
Florida power outage map: Track widespread outages from Helene in the state
At least six people have died as Helene unleashed dangerous weather conditions across multiple states in the Southeast, according to authorities and media reports.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference late Thursday that a person was killed in a wreck near Ybor City in Tampa after a sign fell onto a highway.
In central Georgia, two people died after a mobile home overturned in a possible tornado Thursday. Georgia Gov. Bryan Kemp posted a statement on X offering prayers to the families.
On Friday, a firefighter was killed when a tree fell on his vehicle in Blackshear, Georgia, local media reported, citing the Pierce County Fire Department.
In North Carolina, a 4-year-old was killed and others were injured in a wreck on Thursday that occurred as Helene's outer bands were slamming the state. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a person died and another was hospitalized after a tree fell on a home just after 5 a.m. Friday, according to the Charlotte Fire Department.
“This was a storm related death,” Capt. John Lipcsak, a spokesperson for the fire department, told USA TODAY.
Outside Perry, Florida, longtime resident Donna Parker, 80, watched as her grandson cut up a toppled palm tree with a chainsaw.Parker has lived in her house since 1985 and has never left for a hurricane, the names of which she can still rattle off.“The wind, it was bad. But I’ve had worse. We’ve really had worse. I’ve had it where my whole front yard was a lake,” she said.“A lot of prayers, I tell you, when the wind come up. But the good Lord looked after us.”
While Helene was smashing into Florida, a new hurricane was coming to life in the Atlantic. Hurricane Isaac formed Friday morning far out in the ocean, almost 1,000 miles from Bermuda, the hurricane center said.
Although the hurricane is moving east across the open Atlantic far from land, swells generated by Isaac are affecting portions of the coast of Bermuda and could spread into the Azores by this weekend. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Elsewhere, forecasters were also watching a weather disturbance in the central Atlantic Ocean, one that has a 90% chance of becoming a named storm within the next couple of days. "A tropical depression or storm could form today while the system moves generally westward to west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph," the National Hurricane Center said. "The system is then forecast to slow down and turn north-northwestward by this weekend."
If it gets a name, it would be called Tropical Storm Joyce. As of Friday morning, the system poses no threat to any land areas.
Finally, ominously, forecasters were also turning their attention back to the Caribbean Sea, where yet another system appears to be brewing in a similar location to where Hurricane Helene formed. "Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for slow development while the system moves generally northwestward, potentially entering the Gulf of Mexico by the end of next week," the hurricane center said.
That system, if it strengthens to a storm, would be called Tropical Storm Kirk.
– Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
In Sanibel, Florida, a U.S. Coast Guard Air Station crew rescued a man and his dog after his sailboat became disabled and started taking on water off the Florida coast.
Crews found the disabled boat 25 miles off the island's coast after a mayday call came in Thursday.
A photo posted on X shows the Coast Guard rescuing the pair near a disabled vessel as high waters swirl around them.
Officials said the boater and the dog were airlifted to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.
The storm came the closest to the barrier island around 3 p.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service reported.
– Natalie Alund, USA TODAY
Theme park-goers awaited official updates Friday morning announcing what parts of Walt Disney World may be closed.
Walt Disney World in Orlando was open Thursday, but a few parts of the massive theme park were closed because of to Hurricane Helene, including the Typhoon Lagoon water park and miniature golf course. Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party was also canceled for Thursday, the Fort Myers News-Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.
Disney World has closed less than a dozen times for hurricanes and national emergencies since its opening in 1971, according to the News-Press.
In Tampa Bay, residents said they saw vanished beaches, boats that ran into homes and businesses on fire.
"Complete devastation and loss here," Vikki Hudson, who lives in Largo about three miles from the coast, told USA TODAY on Friday. "The beaches are gone. Everything is under water. Boats pilled on top of houses and yards."
Hudson said Gulf Boulevard, which runs the St. Petersburg coastline from Pass-A-Grille historic district north to Clearwater, was "completely under water."
Hudson, who lives about 20 minutes from Treasure Island Beach where her two businesses are − The Island Girl Tiki Bar and The Island Girl Beach Rentals − said she has not been able to check on either because bridges are closed because of widespread flooding.
"We don’t know anything yet, we cannot get to any of the barrier islands," Hudson said.
– Natalie Alund, USA TODAY
Authorities in communities up and down the west coast of Florida said they were conducting water rescues on Friday as storm surge continued to inundate coastal areas.
In Pasco County, communications manager Tambrey Lane, said state and local agencies working together had rescued at least 135 people from rising waters as of 7:30 a.m. Friday, though she added that number might be as high as 200 or more.
Crews were still out as of 8:30 a.m. and rescues were ongoing, Lane said, and some areas remained inaccessible to rescue crews. More than 54,000 homes were under a mandatory evacuation order west of Interstate 19 and about 4,000 more homes east of the highway.
“It’s really bad,” said Michelle Welsh, an emergency communications officer with the county. “I think it’s the worst I’ve seen.”
Welsh, who’s lived in the area since 2007, said her single-wide trailer had no power, but her home, fortunately, was intact.
– Phaedra Trethan, USA TODAY
Residents in a section of St. Petersburg, a city of 261,000, were told not to flush toilets or take showers after the city shut off power at a sewer treatment plant.
The city said it made the “difficult decision” in order to “protect the plant from unprecedented storm surge," in a statement released Friday morning.
“Impacted residents/businesses should not drain water, take showers, do laundry or flush toilets,” the city said. “Draining water will cause sewage to back up into homes/businesses.”
Dawn broke Friday morning over a battered and sudden Big Bend region of Florida after hurricane Helene roared ashore overnight.
The sharp smell of pine filled the air, an artifact of the hundreds of snapped trees lining roads between St. Marks and Perry. Emergency workers flooding into the area, wove around downed trees along U.S Highway 98 as sheriff deputies, limited access, and patrolled for possible looting.
In the tiny community of St. Marks, about 20 miles south of Tallahassee, floodwaters had reached the front of the U.S Post Office building, about 3/10 of a mile from the St. Marks River, which flows into the Gulf a few miles downstream.Some residents had planned to ride out the storm in their homes or aboard fishing boats tied up at the marina. They could not be immediately reached Friday morning, although cellphone service in the area was working.
Authorities in the Atlanta metro area conducted rescues early Friday as Helene raced through the state, drenching a vast swath of the Southeast in multiple inches of rain.
About 25 people were rescued from a flooded apartment complex north of downtown Atlanta, multiple outlets reported, citing the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department.
Nearby Peachtree Creek entered major flood stage, reaching a height of more than 23 feet. Flood watches and warnings were active across the state of Georgia, where all counties are under a state of emergency declared by Gov. Brian Kemp.
About 4-6 inches of rain have fallen throughout north-central Georgia, including Atlanta and its surrounding counties, according to the weather service in Peachtree City, south of Atlanta. Forecasters say an additional 2 inches could fall throughout the morning hours.
Amber Handlin sat in front of her Lab mix Duckey in a makeshift shelter at the Leon High School gym. They were among the 546 people and 60 pets were in Leon County shelters Thursday afternoon.
Handlin lives in her car and has no friends or family nearby, and with several counties in the area under mandatory evacuation orders, she and the dog were both anxious as the storm approached.
Sydney Walter, Jacob Walsh and 1-year-old Graylan live near Florida State University's campus. "We're like nope, we are not even going to try it," Walter said. "I said, I have a baby so I'm not risking anything.”
The family, which is expecting a new member, decided to shelter at Leon's gym, citing its proximity to their home, the security it offers − and the most persuasive push, the mom said, was Gov. Ron DeSantis' encouragement.
– Alaijah Brown, Tallahassee Democrat
Read the full story: Public schools sheltering local evacuees from Helene
In Mitchell and Avery counties in western North Carolina, officials declared a flash flood emergency warning residents of “catastrophic flooding.”
Officials reported major flooding throughout both counties as rainfall in excess of 7 to 10 inches closed roads, flooded bridges, inundated homes and businesses. Water rescues were ongoing throughout the region, according to the weather service.
“This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW! Life threatening flash flooding of low water crossings, small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses,” said the weather service in nearby South Carolina.
As Helene pummeled northwest Florida with over 100 mph winds and surges of water several feet high, Philip Tooke managed to punch out a terse but frantic message from his phone as he sat riding out the storm – not in his house, but on his boat.
“Lost power,” he wrote from St. Mark’s, 30 miles south of Tallahassee and 20 miles away from where Hurricane Helene hit the mouth of the Aucilla River. But, he adds: "Still floating."
Tooke, the 63-year-old owner of a local seafood market, and his brother remained aboard their fishing boats as Helene lashed the area. The pair are among the Floridians who took to the water for their survival. They did so despite evacuation orders made ahead of the Category 4 hurricane and grisly warnings that foretold death for those who stayed.
Read the full story here: Floridians ride out Hurricane Helene
– Michael Loria, Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
It's too early yet for detailed damage reports from the counties that Helene ripped across. But the National Hurricane Center says Category 4 storms threaten well-built framed homes with "severe" damage, potentially losing both roofs and walls. Most trees are snapped or uprooted and power poles are downed.
"Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months," the hurricane center says of Category 4 storms.
The governors of Georgia and the Carolinas have declared states of emergencies as the fast-moving storm barrels through the Florida coast.
"We will likely avoid the brunt of this storm, but it is still expected to bring flooding, high winds and isolated tornadoes," South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said. "Take proper precautions and monitor local forecasts."
– Doyle Rice
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will visit Florida on Friday to assess the impacts of the storm and report back to Biden.
Criswell said she would fly as close as she could to Tallahassee and meet with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his team. The FEMA leader said she would like to take an aerial tour if possible so she can see the damage for herself. Afterward, she is prepared to move up to Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, also expected to be heavily affected by Helene.
"Me being on the ground helps me validate some of the damage more quickly, so we can get major declarations in place faster," she told reporters at a White House briefing Thursday, adding the agency has the resources it needs to respond to this disaster.
Criswell said FEMA has aggressively deployed resources in advance of Helene's arrival and advised those likely to be impacted to do the same, both in Florida and across inland locations far from the storm's landfall. Parts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and the Appalachians could get up to 20 inches of rain and experience widespread flooding.
"Take the storm seriously,'' Criswell said. "People in Hurricane Helene's path, you need to listen to your local officials. If they tell you to evacuate, please do so, and if they tell you to shelter in place, then that's what you should do. They're going to give you the best information that you can do for your specific situation. Those decisions can save lives."
− Francesca Chambers
Contributing: Tallahassee Democrat; Reuters
Helene made landfall at about 11:10 p.m. ET Thursday near Perry, Florida, with 140-mph winds, making it the first known Category 4 storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region since records began in 1851. For several hours, the storm maintained hurricane strength as it pushed inland across northern Florida and into Georgia.
By 8 a.m. ET Friday, the National Hurricane Center said Helene was a tropical storm with sustained winds of 60 mph. Racing at 30 mph, the storm was located 35 miles south-southwest of Clemson, South Carolina, and 80 miles eastern-northeast of Atlanta.
At least six storm-related deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. Authorities across the Southeast were rescuing residents trapped in rising floodwaters as Helene soaked much of the region in torrential rain. Over 4.4 million homes and businesses were without power from Florida to the Carolinas and Virginia, Friday morning.
Track the storm: Map Helene's forecast path through Georgia
Developments:
∎ All hurricane and tropical storm warnings were discontinued along the Florida east coast south of the Flagler and Volusia county line, and along the Florida west coast south of the mouth of the Suwannee River, according to the National Hurricane Center.
∎ Helene is tied as the fourteenth most powerful hurricane to hit anywhere in the U.S. since records have been kept and the seventh most powerful to slam into Florida, according to National Hurricane Center data.
∎ In Tallahassee, more than 50 roads were blocked by downed trees and over 53,000 homes and businesses were without power in the wake of Helene, the city said in a post on X.
Among the hardest hit areas was Steinhatchee, a small town along a river emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.Friday morning, John Kujawski drove a golf cart with his wife, Jamie Lee, over debris and around downed trees, horrified at the damage.
Last year, Hurricane Idalia pummeled the town, and workers were still clearing up that mess when Helene arrived. “This is overwhelming,” Lee said. “I don’t think it’s sunk in.”Navigating their bumpy way along Riverside Drive, the couple pointed out guest houses that had been flattened, docks and boat shoved ashore.They noted whose new roofs were destroyed all over again, and mourned the damage to a newly opened pizza restaurant.“They probably had only sold $200 worth of pizza,” Kujawski said. “This is awful.”
Over 4.4 million homes and businesses across the eastern U.S. were in the dark early Friday as Helene pummeled the region with powerful winds and heavy rain.
Below are the outage totals from Florida to Virginia as of 9:30 a.m., according to a USA TODAY power outage tracker.
South Carolina: 1,391,621
Florida: 1,127,650
Georgia: 1,079,409
North Carolina: 692,705
Virginia: 57,299
Tennessee: 51,536
Kentucky: 16,632
Florida power outage map: Track widespread outages from Helene in the state
At least six people have died as Helene unleashed dangerous weather conditions across multiple states in the Southeast, according to authorities and media reports.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference late Thursday that a person was killed in a wreck near Ybor City in Tampa after a sign fell onto a highway.
In central Georgia, two people died after a mobile home overturned in a possible tornado Thursday. Georgia Gov. Bryan Kemp posted a statement on X offering prayers to the families.
On Friday, a firefighter was killed when a tree fell on his vehicle in Blackshear, Georgia, local media reported, citing the Pierce County Fire Department.
In North Carolina, a 4-year-old was killed and others were injured in a wreck on Thursday that occurred as Helene's outer bands were slamming the state. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a person died and another was hospitalized after a tree fell on a home just after 5 a.m. Friday, according to the Charlotte Fire Department.
“This was a storm related death,” Capt. John Lipcsak, a spokesperson for the fire department, told USA TODAY.
Outside Perry, Florida, longtime resident Donna Parker, 80, watched as her grandson cut up a toppled palm tree with a chainsaw.Parker has lived in her house since 1985 and has never left for a hurricane, the names of which she can still rattle off.“The wind, it was bad. But I’ve had worse. We’ve really had worse. I’ve had it where my whole front yard was a lake,” she said.“A lot of prayers, I tell you, when the wind come up. But the good Lord looked after us.”
While Helene was smashing into Florida, a new hurricane was coming to life in the Atlantic. Hurricane Isaac formed Friday morning far out in the ocean, almost 1,000 miles from Bermuda, the hurricane center said.
Although the hurricane is moving east across the open Atlantic far from land, swells generated by Isaac are affecting portions of the coast of Bermuda and could spread into the Azores by this weekend. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Elsewhere, forecasters were also watching a weather disturbance in the central Atlantic Ocean, one that has a 90% chance of becoming a named storm within the next couple of days. "A tropical depression or storm could form today while the system moves generally westward to west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph," the National Hurricane Center said. "The system is then forecast to slow down and turn north-northwestward by this weekend."
If it gets a name, it would be called Tropical Storm Joyce. As of Friday morning, the system poses no threat to any land areas.
Finally, ominously, forecasters were also turning their attention back to the Caribbean Sea, where yet another system appears to be brewing in a similar location to where Hurricane Helene formed. "Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for slow development while the system moves generally northwestward, potentially entering the Gulf of Mexico by the end of next week," the hurricane center said.
That system, if it strengthens to a storm, would be called Tropical Storm Kirk.
– Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
In Sanibel, Florida, a U.S. Coast Guard Air Station crew rescued a man and his dog after his sailboat became disabled and started taking on water off the Florida coast.
Crews found the disabled boat 25 miles off the island's coast after a mayday call came in Thursday.
A photo posted on X shows the Coast Guard rescuing the pair near a disabled vessel as high waters swirl around them.
Officials said the boater and the dog were airlifted to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.
The storm came the closest to the barrier island around 3 p.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service reported.
– Natalie Alund, USA TODAY
Theme park-goers awaited official updates Friday morning announcing what parts of Walt Disney World may be closed.
Walt Disney World in Orlando was open Thursday, but a few parts of the massive theme park were closed because of to Hurricane Helene, including the Typhoon Lagoon water park and miniature golf course. Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party was also canceled for Thursday, the Fort Myers News-Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.
Disney World has closed less than a dozen times for hurricanes and national emergencies since its opening in 1971, according to the News-Press.
In Tampa Bay, residents said they saw vanished beaches, boats that ran into homes and businesses on fire.
"Complete devastation and loss here," Vikki Hudson, who lives in Largo about three miles from the coast, told USA TODAY on Friday. "The beaches are gone. Everything is under water. Boats pilled on top of houses and yards."
Hudson said Gulf Boulevard, which runs the St. Petersburg coastline from Pass-A-Grille historic district north to Clearwater, was "completely under water."
Hudson, who lives about 20 minutes from Treasure Island Beach where her two businesses are − The Island Girl Tiki Bar and The Island Girl Beach Rentals − said she has not been able to check on either because bridges are closed because of widespread flooding.
"We don’t know anything yet, we cannot get to any of the barrier islands," Hudson said.
– Natalie Alund, USA TODAY
Authorities in communities up and down the west coast of Florida said they were conducting water rescues on Friday as storm surge continued to inundate coastal areas.
In Pasco County, communications manager Tambrey Lane, said state and local agencies working together had rescued at least 135 people from rising waters as of 7:30 a.m. Friday, though she added that number might be as high as 200 or more.
Crews were still out as of 8:30 a.m. and rescues were ongoing, Lane said, and some areas remained inaccessible to rescue crews. More than 54,000 homes were under a mandatory evacuation order west of Interstate 19 and about 4,000 more homes east of the highway.
“It’s really bad,” said Michelle Welsh, an emergency communications officer with the county. “I think it’s the worst I’ve seen.”
Welsh, who’s lived in the area since 2007, said her single-wide trailer had no power, but her home, fortunately, was intact.
– Phaedra Trethan, USA TODAY
Residents in a section of St. Petersburg, a city of 261,000, were told not to flush toilets or take showers after the city shut off power at a sewer treatment plant.
The city said it made the “difficult decision” in order to “protect the plant from unprecedented storm surge," in a statement released Friday morning.
“Impacted residents/businesses should not drain water, take showers, do laundry or flush toilets,” the city said. “Draining water will cause sewage to back up into homes/businesses.”
Dawn broke Friday morning over a battered and sudden Big Bend region of Florida after hurricane Helene roared ashore overnight.
The sharp smell of pine filled the air, an artifact of the hundreds of snapped trees lining roads between St. Marks and Perry. Emergency workers flooding into the area, wove around downed trees along U.S Highway 98 as sheriff deputies, limited access, and patrolled for possible looting.
In the tiny community of St. Marks, about 20 miles south of Tallahassee, floodwaters had reached the front of the U.S Post Office building, about 3/10 of a mile from the St. Marks River, which flows into the Gulf a few miles downstream.Some residents had planned to ride out the storm in their homes or aboard fishing boats tied up at the marina. They could not be immediately reached Friday morning, although cellphone service in the area was working.
Authorities in the Atlanta metro area conducted rescues early Friday as Helene raced through the state, drenching a vast swath of the Southeast in multiple inches of rain.
About 25 people were rescued from a flooded apartment complex north of downtown Atlanta, multiple outlets reported, citing the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department.
Nearby Peachtree Creek entered major flood stage, reaching a height of more than 23 feet. Flood watches and warnings were active across the state of Georgia, where all counties are under a state of emergency declared by Gov. Brian Kemp.
About 4-6 inches of rain have fallen throughout north-central Georgia, including Atlanta and its surrounding counties, according to the weather service in Peachtree City, south of Atlanta. Forecasters say an additional 2 inches could fall throughout the morning hours.
Amber Handlin sat in front of her Lab mix Duckey in a makeshift shelter at the Leon High School gym. They were among the 546 people and 60 pets were in Leon County shelters Thursday afternoon.
Handlin lives in her car and has no friends or family nearby, and with several counties in the area under mandatory evacuation orders, she and the dog were both anxious as the storm approached.
Sydney Walter, Jacob Walsh and 1-year-old Graylan live near Florida State University's campus. "We're like nope, we are not even going to try it," Walter said. "I said, I have a baby so I'm not risking anything.”
The family, which is expecting a new member, decided to shelter at Leon's gym, citing its proximity to their home, the security it offers − and the most persuasive push, the mom said, was Gov. Ron DeSantis' encouragement.
– Alaijah Brown, Tallahassee Democrat
Read the full story: Public schools sheltering local evacuees from Helene
In Mitchell and Avery counties in western North Carolina, officials declared a flash flood emergency warning residents of “catastrophic flooding.”
Officials reported major flooding throughout both counties as rainfall in excess of 7 to 10 inches closed roads, flooded bridges, inundated homes and businesses. Water rescues were ongoing throughout the region, according to the weather service.
“This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW! Life threatening flash flooding of low water crossings, small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses,” said the weather service in nearby South Carolina.
As Helene pummeled northwest Florida with over 100 mph winds and surges of water several feet high, Philip Tooke managed to punch out a terse but frantic message from his phone as he sat riding out the storm – not in his house, but on his boat.
“Lost power,” he wrote from St. Mark’s, 30 miles south of Tallahassee and 20 miles away from where Hurricane Helene hit the mouth of the Aucilla River. But, he adds: "Still floating."
Tooke, the 63-year-old owner of a local seafood market, and his brother remained aboard their fishing boats as Helene lashed the area. The pair are among the Floridians who took to the water for their survival. They did so despite evacuation orders made ahead of the Category 4 hurricane and grisly warnings that foretold death for those who stayed.
Read the full story here: Floridians ride out Hurricane Helene
– Michael Loria, Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
It's too early yet for detailed damage reports from the counties that Helene ripped across. But the National Hurricane Center says Category 4 storms threaten well-built framed homes with "severe" damage, potentially losing both roofs and walls. Most trees are snapped or uprooted and power poles are downed.
"Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months," the hurricane center says of Category 4 storms.
The governors of Georgia and the Carolinas have declared states of emergencies as the fast-moving storm barrels through the Florida coast.
"We will likely avoid the brunt of this storm, but it is still expected to bring flooding, high winds and isolated tornadoes," South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said. "Take proper precautions and monitor local forecasts."
– Doyle Rice
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will visit Florida on Friday to assess the impacts of the storm and report back to Biden.
Criswell said she would fly as close as she could to Tallahassee and meet with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his team. The FEMA leader said she would like to take an aerial tour if possible so she can see the damage for herself. Afterward, she is prepared to move up to Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, also expected to be heavily affected by Helene.
"Me being on the ground helps me validate some of the damage more quickly, so we can get major declarations in place faster," she told reporters at a White House briefing Thursday, adding the agency has the resources it needs to respond to this disaster.
Criswell said FEMA has aggressively deployed resources in advance of Helene's arrival and advised those likely to be impacted to do the same, both in Florida and across inland locations far from the storm's landfall. Parts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and the Appalachians could get up to 20 inches of rain and experience widespread flooding.
"Take the storm seriously,'' Criswell said. "People in Hurricane Helene's path, you need to listen to your local officials. If they tell you to evacuate, please do so, and if they tell you to shelter in place, then that's what you should do. They're going to give you the best information that you can do for your specific situation. Those decisions can save lives."
− Francesca Chambers
Contributing: Tallahassee Democrat; Reuters
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